I was thinking today about the changes in toys and entertainment from the 1980's when I was a kid to now. The toys that freaked me out then were the gremlins dolls. Does anyone else remember those? They were a toy from the movie (which also freaked me out) and the garbage pail kids, the cards stank so much! I think that was kinda the point tho.

So what toys from the past were scary?

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and the garbage pail kids, the cards stank so much! I think that was kinda the point tho.

You mean they actually had an odor? I don't remember that -- gross! My mom wouldn't let us have those but I saw them at school. Some were really morbid -- I didn't like them either.

All clown stuff scared me as a kid. Also, this wasn't a scary toy but I had one of those clip-on koala bears clipped to my bedpost, and I used to think it moved at night so that it was looking at me when I woke up in the morning, which freaked me out. (But not enough to move it or throw it away, so I think I was just freaking myself out over nothing for the thrill of it.)

I can't really think of any other scary toys, but my friends and I used to do Bloody Mary in the bathroom, and games like "light as a feather/stiff as a board," and ouija boards and the like.

All clown stuff scared me as a kid. Also, this wasn't a scary toy but I had one of those clip-on koala bears clipped to my bedpost, and I used to think it moved at night so that it was looking at me when I woke up in the morning, which freaked me out. (But not enough to move it or throw it away, so I think I was just freaking myself out over nothing for the thrill of it.)

I also hated (and still do) anything clown related.

How big was your koala bear?

I remember a fad of wearing little (like 2 inches in length) koala bears on our collars. I had several and LOVED THEM SO MUCH! Somewhere along the line, my dad acquired one that was a promo gift from a rehab center. It wore a little vest that said something like "Hanging onto sobriety, Acme Treatment Center" I can only imagine what the teachers at school thought when I wore that one on my collar.

I never liked toy bugs, especially spiders and still don't like toy spiders. Childlike dolls with plastic faces creeped me out, maybe I saw a chucky commercial or something. Baby dolls were ok. I don't know if there were toys for it but anything related to Fantasia, posters/wooden straw brooms reminded me of that terrifying scene with brooms and I still try not to think about it.

Jack-in-the-boxes scared me too! Lawn darts were just plain dangerous, but most games can be if you play them wrong. I was at a 4th of July party and a kid got hit in the head with a lawn dart. Luckily, her Dad is a brain surgeon. Off to the hospital they went! I think that's why they got rid of that game.

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I had a Lady Elaine Fairchild hand puppet. She was the lady who lived in the museum-go-round in The Land of Make Believe on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I loved that show and I was happy to have the doll, but I was kind of afraid of her. She had a wart on her plastic nose, and I always tried to chew it off.

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I had a Lady Elaine Fairchild hand puppet. She was the lady who lived in the museum-go-round in The Land of Make Believe on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I loved that show and I was happy to have the doll, but I was kind of afraid of her. She had a wart on her plastic nose, and I always tried to chew it off.

All clown stuff scared me as a kid. Also, this wasn't a scary toy but I had one of those clip-on koala bears clipped to my bedpost, and I used to think it moved at night so that it was looking at me when I woke up in the morning, which freaked me out. (But not enough to move it or throw it away, so I think I was just freaking myself out over nothing for the thrill of it.)

HIM? Haha! I had several of those, too (sorry to give you nightmares).

Oh, dear lord. You're dredging up some things I'd rather have forgotten! I had a Teddy Ruxpin, and he sort of...malfunctioned. He'd go off without anyone touching him and his voice got a little demonic at the end. *shudder!*

I'm on the younger side of things, so I've never heard of most of the things you're talking about - but I had older cousins! They decided it would be a great idea to watch the movie Gremlins with 3y/o me (they were about 4, 6, and 8) in the mid 90's. It freaked me out a bit, but nothing compared to when the toy Furby came out (that year? maybe the next year?). I thought it WAS a Gremlin when I saw it on the shelves that Christmas, and was completely and utterly terrified

One of my family members mistook my look of frozen horror for speechless thrill, and BOUGHT ONE FOR ME. It of course was possessed by the devil and would start squawking in the middle of the night in its ridiculous language... "MEE TAYY OOH-NOO!" or whatever the Furbish translation of "I'm going to kill you in your sleep, little child!" is. Ugh.

I don't know about Memory Lane, but one year when dd was just a tot, I saw a huge My Little Pony that was designed to be like a baby doll, complete with bottle and pacifier and blanket. Creeped. Me. Out. Something freaky about the huge eyes showing up on dolls these days. We had a Baby Alive in the 70s (which was freakish enough that it ate baby food and pooped it out and heavens knows what happened in between) but now the new version has those huge, glaring, painted on eyes that make me run screaming.

"Let me see you stripped down to the bone. Let me hear you speaking just for me."